The invention relates to a brush, particularly for medical use, for collecting material and for retaining such material for transfer of the material from a collection cite to a deposit site where the collected material is deposited by smearing on a surface, and a method in manufacturing such a brush.
For medical sampling in body cavities and body passages there are used in addition to spatulas and cotton swabs, such swabs consisting of a shank with a cotton wad at one end thereof, also brushes because these, contrary to spatulas and cotton swabs, can be made of a material and with a stiffness and density which are adapted to the surface of the body at which the sampling is to be effected, in order to scrape sufficiently effectively on said surface as is required in order that cells or surface fragments and/or secrete sought for shall be collected in and or shall adhere to the brush, and the brush at the same time can be constructed in such a way that it is possible to perform a gentle and, as far as possible, painless sampling. A further advantage of the sampling brush is that the collected sample can be easily transferred from the brush by smearing on a microscope slide or by washing in a liquid without the collected cells being damaged or destroyed. Sampling brushes are used at present for sampling e.g. in uterus, cervix or urethra.
In present embodiments sampling brushes comprise a shank of twisted wire and bristles or tufts are attached to the shank by being clamped between the twisted wires. Such sampling brushes are shown and described e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,537 (Suciu et al) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,464 (Levene). A major drawback of brushes of this type is that it is necessary to cut the bristles after the attachement thereof to impart to the brush the desired diameter. Also, the bristles are not distributed uniformly around the twisted wires. They are concentrated to a number of sectors mutually spaced by sectors free of bristles, the number of sectors being dependent of the number of twisted wires forming the shank, if two wires are used as is common practice, there will be four bristle sectors. The bristles are randomly distributed in the sectors, and the angle enclosed by adjacent bristles cannot be controlled. This reduces effectiveness of the brush in collecting material. There is an optimal number of bristles that can be attached to the shank between the wires. If the number of bristles is larger than said optimal number there is the risk of bristles loosening from the shank, which maybe hazardeous e.g. when the brush is used for medical sampling in body cavities. Moreover, the manufacture of such brushes is expensive and no doubt is too expensive for a one-way product as is concerned here, and the possibilities to make small brushes, i.e. brushes wherein the brush portion has a small diameter, and to make brushes with very thin bristles, i.e. softer brushes, are very limited. However, it is desired to provide small and soft brushes and also to reduce the manufacturing costs of the brushes.